i made the kids a little mini calendar to count down to christmas because Jordy was wanting to know how far away it was. And i made up little things to put on each day so that they could see a flow to the days and what we did as christmas approached (like one day was for putting up lights, and another day for baking gingerbread etc).

Darcy is obviously in a hurry cos i walked into the loungeroom and he had taken the calendar off the christmas table and was busy crossing out all the days.

yet another reason not to leave the kids unattended at the dinner table.

Use the spoon, crazy boy!

And, yes, he had already had his bath.

i made yoghurt for the first time in the thermomix yesterday. I was not sure how it would go because you are supposed to pour it into a thermos so that it stays insulated and warm for several hours but i don’t have a thermos! So i improvised.

I poured it into two of my thick glass fowlers jars and then sat it in the slow cooker which i had filled with warm water. Then i covered them with a few heavy tea towels. Every now and again i would put the slow cooker onto the ‘keep warm’ setting just to keep the water temp up.

The bottom section of the yoghurt (where it was actually immersed in the water) had a different appearance to the top of the jar which i was not sure about and suspected that it might not work. But i stuck them in the fridge before i went to bed….. and….

yay!!! delicious perfect yoghurt the next morning. We stir through some of the fruit preserves i have made in the thermomix and it’s really amazingly good.

if anyone sees any of these at decent prices after xmas in the sales etc can you let me know?

Schleich Animals
It would have to be a half price sale or something cos they are crazy expensive- probably worth it cos the plastic animals just don’t give kids any real perspective of scale or actual detail. If it is a really good sale call me!! cos by the time i got there all the good ones would be gone, or grab a couple and i’ll fix you up.

There are a gazillion ones that would be good but i particularly want a horse for Darcy, a dinosaur for Jordy, and pretty much any regular wildlife animal chimpanzee, polar bear, camel, crocodile, anything good from the ’sealife’ range. They are at Target so they might be included in their big toy sales.

Here’s a little video of Darcy drawing from this afternoon.

If you listen carefully he starts off counting to four and then talks about the cat he is drawing (two eyes, tail etc) and then he talks about the horse he is colouring in. My horses are looking better all the time!

And he can’t sit on the kitchen bench cos after i stayed up til midnight sanding and oiling it he has already managed to draw all over it. He has also drawn on the walls, the lounge, and the cabinets in the bathroom. Silly me left a permanent pen in a drawer which he found and with that he decided to draw on the clothes dryer, the washing machine, the floor, and my new craft felt (as well as himself).

so cute to watch them running around and getting all excited with a big adventure just because you stick a crown on their heads.

Jordy is so full of imaginative stories and great adventurous tales. And Darcy just soaks it all in and then repeats his own little version of things.

Actually, it’s incredible how much Darcy learns from Jordy. Yesterday, for example, Darcy counted to four! Totally bizarre. He has understood the concept of “one, two, more” for quite a while but now he goes up to four. And Jordy was jumping and counting and saying One, and Two, and Three etc etc and he got up to Six and then stopped, and then Darcy piped up and said “And Seven!” He knew what came next!?!?!

And he learns some not so great things as well. Today for example there was a suspiciously loud noise coming from his nappy and i asked him if he needed to do a poo. He said “not poo, bum burp!” and paused for a moment then said “BIG bum burp!” and grinned at me like a cheeky fool. It really was quite big!

At the moment Darcy is totally fascinated by horses. I am not really sure why or how but it started a week or more ago. Now i have to draw a horse for him about fifty times a day. So often in fact that i had to google how to draw a horse that actually looks like a horse instead of the strange four legged long tailed dog-like horse creature that i had previously been drawing.

For the last few weeks Darcy has had the odd day where he would refuse to have a day nap and just power on through until 7pm. Well both yesterday and today he had no nap. And yesterday he even went all day without asking to be breastfed and i did not end up feeding him until about 11pm. He’s getting all grown up! Strangely enough i remember that Jordy had mostly dropped his day naps at xmas time last year so allowing for the two months difference in birth months it looks like Darcy is dropping his day nap around the same age. And he is probably at a similar stage in toilet awareness/toilet training as well. He does the odd wee or poo in the toilet and has just this week started telling me that Santa needs to do a poo, or Caity needs to do a poo, or Bundy needs to do a poo when, in fact, it is Darcy that wants to do a poo! Took me a few goes to make the connection (i’m a bit slow) but now when he tells me or asks me about someone else then i know that he wants to go to the toilet. Fingers crossed that he’ll be out of nappies before his second birthday the same as Jordy was! That would be nice ….. did i just jinx myself by typing that?

and i do mean IN the garden.
I hope it recovers. At the moment the ride-on car, a tonka truck, a big bucket, a broken solar light and lord knows what else have all been thrown into the corner of the garden and it looks like a little mini hurricane came though and flattened the plants (we’ll call it Hurricane Jordy).

But they seemed to really be enjoying themselves laying back and gazing at the sky so it’s hard to get annoyed at the destruction.

Tim and i took the boys to Timbertown with Dave and Kaz and kids for the chirstmas carols. Was a great afternoon!! Timbertown was completely opened (except still no train!!) so the kids got to see the animals, and the blacksmith working, and the bullock team and horse carriage were doing laps so it was just like a day at Timbertown but with the bonus of carols and SANTA!!! yay!

Even though it’s only a month or so since Jordy was last at TT he was still really keen to look through all the old buildings and tell stories about the displays inside. I’ll have to take him again when Nardia comes to visit.

The carols were really good with lots more on offer than the ones we used to go to at Westport. Apart from the usual chrissy songs they had a ‘welcome to country’ from the traditional owners, a cool bloke on a pennyfarthing bike riding around that the older kids chased after again and again, and then Santa arrived in a clydesdale drawn cart and then walked through the crowd talking to and getting photos with the kids for ages.

If they do it again next year i reckon we’ll be back!

And the boys had a great time with their cousins reading, wrestling, chasing, and playing.

i am starting to feel a little bit creative and crafty again and have felt like playing around with some photos (and so have even dragged out the DSLR instead of the point and shoot! LOL!) and, even making some crafty bits and pieces for xmas.

I would love to get back into writing short stories but i never have the time, so by default cooking has been my creative outlet for a while but now i am excited about making some play things for the boys and some of their friends for xmas.

I have the afternoon child free so have gotten started! I went to Spotlight yesterday and bought pinking shears (you know the scissors that cut a zigzag) and the friggin things won’t cut through fabric. Piece of crap! Anyone have some i can borrow!!! And i need little tiny decorative beads, you know the itty bitty ones that would work as little stars or butterfly antenna bits?? (nardia, what else did you find in your cleanout!!)

Oh, and in another side note there were scissors for sale in there with warning signs saying that they were made with products known to the State of California as causing birth defects and being carcinogenic!! Who the hell makes scissors out of products known to cause cancer and birth defects. Totally bizarre.

Anyway, i am having fun!!! I only wish my sewing skills lived up to my imagination.

we don’t have a bathtub but the boys prefer to have a bath rather than a shower. Which makes visiting Dad or Nanny lots of fun cos when they are here they get crammed in like sardines.